Young Love

Maggie has a boyfriend. At least that's what she tells us. That's also what her boyfriend tells us. My friend has five year old twin boys. Maggie and one of them are smitten with each other. Its quite cute. They talk about each other all the time, and when they see each other its like the world lights up. Today when they saw each other, they ran, yelling each other's names into an embrace. She doesn't hug her other friends. So it was cute. But even cuter, Maggie has a boo boo in the middle of her face. And this sweet boy says to her, "Maggie you still look beautiful with that cut on your face." She promptly yelled at him that it was not a cut, it was a booboo. He quickly ran back to his mom to get help taking off his jacket, and as she did so I over heard this, "Maggie still IS beautiful. She is so beautiful. But a little piece of my heart is missing since she got hurt." Maggie and this boy frequently talk about how they miss each other when they are apart, and have already said the L word.

So, sorry boys, Maggie is taken. We're figuring out which colleges they will be going to and where to do the wedding.

What's blood got to do, got to do with it?

So far in Maggie's short life, all of her major booboos have happened in mommy's company. Yesterday, however, was a change of pace. While I was at work, Maggie got a decent boo boo in daddy's presence, and it involved blood, which I know to be Jeremy's kryptonite. However, they both handled it like pros.

Silly, fairly novice parents that we are, we hung our stockings on a shelf in the living room using heavy, metal, pointy, decorative stocking hooks. This year they hung within reach of our adventurous 3 year old. Yesterday she managed to pull one down onto her face. Of course the corner hit her smack in the middle of her forehead. Her initial reaction was apparently to cry. She seemed alright. There was a minor mark on her forehead. Her next response was to touch it, which prompted a steady flow of blood from her face. When she looked at her hands, she apparently panicked and began running in circles screaming, "I've got red on me. I've got red on me." At which point Jeremy bravely chased her and scooped her up, hoping to keep the blood from getting all over our beige furniture and carpet. I didn't see any when I got home, so he succeeded, at least to my knowledge. Hopefully he didn't just flip over the couch cushions or something. He called me at work to inform me of the incident, and said that "The stupid stocking holder fell off the shelf and hit Maggie." I could hear Maggie, still whimpering in the background chastise Jeremy with a firm, "Stupid is not nice Daddy." I swung home to check on her, as I'm five minutes away. When I walked in the door, what to my wondering eyes did appear? Maggie with a bandaid across her forehead and one across her nose. Jeremy quickly reassured me that the nose bandaid was merely to stop the crying. It was Dora and she makes everything all better. I insisted on peeling back the bandaid to inspect the booboo, only to find that it was attached to her eyebrows. Thus the hysterics began again. It was a minor booboo, but as we know all head wounds bleed ALOT. Everything was quelled with a candy cane and mommy ran back to work. Life is NEVER dull with our lovely children in tow.

Birthday Boy

1 year ago today I was at the hospital with my little Miles. Pretty close to this time of the day. After nearly 18 hours of labor my little boy was born. I walked for hours to move the labor along. Walk for 45 minutes on the monitor for 15. I ate several meals. My knees and ankles ached. I switched from slippers to gym shoes after awhile. The nurses said I must have walked for miles. Such irony that we picked the name long before the labor. I suppose if we have any more children, I'll have to be more careful when I pick out the name. Regardless, he is a joy. He has been the most wonderful laid back little boy I have ever seen. Sweet and calm. He lets his sister love all over him and doesn't cry when she nearly smothers him. He loves his mama and laughs at his dada. He is so much better than we could have ever imagined. We love our Miles and he has been more blessing than we deserve. Happy Birthday sweet boy of ours!

Maggie Rose Cutest Little Girl from Head to Toes

Maggie Rose. You turned 3 yesterday. Its hard to belive that you have been in our lives for 3 whole years. It seems like less time and more time all at once. We can't imagine our lives without you. You are beautiful, smart, funny, compassionate, caring, and loving. You are so best, and we can't wait to spend many more birthdays with you.

This is Halloween everybody make a scene, Halloween Halloween!!!

I seriously love my little ghouls. This year we went with theme costumes. Everyone meet Sally and Jack Skellingtion. Thank you Nightmare Before Christmas for the inspiration. We did end up going out and tricker treating. It was darn chilly, and sadly a lot of houses were not even giving out candy. But the ones that did. . . JACKPOT. People were even trying to get us to take candy for Miles. I politely declined. We also watch our good friends' Nicole and Josh's daughter Ella. She and Maggie ate special orange pancakes with sprinkles for Halloween breakfast. They took like two bites because they were too excited to play together. I tried to get a good picture, but it wasn't happening. So here are the pancakes.

They Say its your Birthday. . .

So, yesterday I turned the big 29, and officially began my last year in my twenties. I am not upset about getting older, but it hit me yesterday why people get depressed about birthdays as they get older. It is not the actually turning a year older that is depressing, its the fact that your birthday gets less important to other people as you get older. People inevitably get busier with their own things, and less likely to stop the world to celebrate your birthday. This leaves you alone and wondering where everyone went. My birthday was not the best ever, but it could be worse. It could be much worse. And today, the day after is. I am faced with a little boy with a bad cold and diarrhea, probably from the drainage from the cold. On the other end of the spectrum I have a constipated little girl, again. The fact that it snowed this morning only serves as a reminder of the pending arrival of winter. I just can't wait.

Milesy Boy

Miles had his 9 month check up this past week. This kid is a chunk. He is in the 10th percentile for height but the 50th for weight. He is a bit ahead of the game for standing and such. He got a shot but didn't even flinch. He was too preoccupied by the fun noises the paper makes when he kicks his feet. I love my baby boy and he is getting so big. I can't believe he'll be a year old in about 2 months. Yikes! Where did this year go? I can't believe how cute he is either. I'm posting a recent pic to go along with this update. My adorable sweet boy.

Elusive

I know that new posts on this blog have been elusive. But so has sleep at our house. In the interest of not falling over, I have tried to pare down my extracurriculars. I'm sure that when Maggie's bad dreams are done, she will sleep better. I'm sure when Miles learns how to lay back down after standing up, he will also sleep better. I was loading new videos from our camera onto the computer and I stumbled onto an adorable oldie but goody, as well as some newbies. I hope that you enjoy them

Sing, sing a song, sing out loud

First, I must apologize for a delay in posting. Its been far too long. Between my crazy busy work schedule during the getting ready for school hiring frenzy and my old computer crashing, I just plumb ran out of time.

As anyone who follows our blog knows, my daughter is extremely verbal. She LOVES to talk. To anyone who will listen in fact.

Lately, Maggie has found her singing voice. I think she loves to sing more than talk, surprising though it may be. I will briefly list her repetoire.

1. ABC
2. Baa Baa Black Sheep
3. Twinkle Twinkle Little Star
(All of you smart people know that this is the same melody with different words. Maggie has also realized this. She makes me sing Baa Baa Black Sheep, daddy sings Twinkle Twinkle, and she sings ABC's. It makes for a rather loud car ride.)

4. Boom Boom Pow also known as Boom Boom Boom by the Black Eyed Peas
(I love when she says "they try to copy my swagger." I have recently videoed her singing the song, but I need to get a better version of it before it goes live online.)
5. Old McDonald
6. B-I-N-G-O
7. Sentimental Heart by She and Him
(Most of you have probably never heard of this song, but YouTube it or something. Gorgeous song.)

In addition, Maggie has begun making up songs for no reason. For example, Miles has a song for when he is fussing in the car. It goes something like, "Miles Jay, you are fine. Don't worry. You're ok. Stop being crabby."

She has a song for eating, "I am eating breakfast. It is good. Yummmy." and then it morphs into Sentimental Heart.

She and Him also do a version of, "You Really Got a Hold on Me." Maggie enjoys this song and it often morphs back into ABC's when she gets to a point where she no longer knows the words.

There is truly nothing like the voice of a small child singing. It brightens my day and renews my patience when I'm starting to get frustrated!

Some New pics

We have had a very busy few weeks here at the Keen household. It seems like the going just never ends. Its mostly good though. In the past month and a half we have done some fun things, and Miles keeps reaching for those milestones. Miles is eating cereal now, as you can see from the picture, and he just started sitting up today. He can't sit up for long, but he can for a bit. Then he gets lazy or wants to reach something and he just tips right over. The doctor says as soon as they can sit up, crawling is close behind. We've also done a couple of fun trips to the children's museum in Naperville and Brookfield Zoo. Maggie has some adorable little friends and we have done playdates with them to each of those locations. I am looking forward to trying to get her out to the Sheddaquarium and possibly the Chicago Children's museum at Navy Pier. We'll see though. Enjoy the pictures!

Potty Words from a Pretty Girl

I am learning more than ever that I need to be careful about what comes out of my mouth. While certain words are fine for me to say, despite the fact that they are not swear words, they aren't so fine for Maggie.

For example. I will have to be careful what Drex says in front of my daughter on 103.5 FM. Because now she keeps repeating, "My sister is a skank?" Preceded or followed by a gasp of horror.

Also, today she was yelling at the dog, which she does frequently now. Only today was the first time I heard her refer to the dog as both the FRICKING dog and FRICKING animal.

Skank and Frick, you will be missed, but I will have to leave you out of my vocab for a while. Its been nice knowing you. Please keep in touch!

A few new pics

Potty training time

So we have been casually introducing the potty for some time. However, Maggie is quite the stubborn girl, and of late has been refusing to even sit on the darn thing, much less do any sort of pottying on it. So, today I made the big jump. I decided that once we got home from the YMCA, she would be in big girl underwear the rest of the day. To my utter suprise it worked! I expected to be cleaning up at least one puddle, but she kept them dry all afternoon. Then I began to worry that she was holding it too long, and that couldn't be good for her, so I made her sit on the potty for like 20 minutes. No results. So I just let her run around the house sans pants for a bit. I was busy feeding Miles so I figured if she had an accident I would clean it up. She was running around and then I heard her in the bathroom. All of a sudden she came out yelling, "Look Mommy, I made yellow." Sadly enough I have heard that many times and come running to nothing. Today though, I was a proud Mama. She did make yellow! And I hope this is the start of her being excited to use the potty. Lord knows I'm excited to get her out of the diapers, at least during the day! Hooray Maggie!!!

Some things about trips with 2 year olds

Apparently two year-old children like to sleep in their own homes and not at hotels. I sort of expected this, but I did not expect the extreme we experienced either. Last summer we went to Iowa for a trip, and as long as Maggie was in bed with Mommy she was fine. This time, not so much. Jeremy and I started off with her in the bed between us. She thought it was so much fun that she didn't want to go to sleep. After at least an hour of telling her to be quiet, lay down and sleep, we got fed up and put her in the pack n play. She cried for 15 minutes straight at least. Then we put her back in our bed, and she fell asleep shortly thereafter. Which put us at about 9:30pm. Not too bad right. Until we are jolted awake at 11:30pm by a screaming hysterical child, yelling, "I want my eyebrows, I want my eyebrows!" She wouldn't calm down for me or for Jeremy. The scream not only woke us up, but startled Miles. Which led to a hotel room of panic as we tried to prevent all the crying from waking everyone else in the hotel. Maggie then began to cry for a nutrigrain bar and goldfish which she just held onto as she stared at the tv. It had been turned on as some sort of calming device. So for about an hour Maggie gazed into space gripping her "cookie bar and goldfish." At some point I said can I take those from you. Sure she says, and lays down and is out in less than 2 minutes. She woke once more at 1:30, apparently sitting up and seeing us still there calmed her enough for her to lay right back down. She then fell asleep horizontally across the bed, head on my legs and kicking Jer the rest of the night. But thereafter Miles thought it would be fun to wake up and eat every two hours or so the rest of the night. I am not so sure if I should look forward to our trip to Michigan in June or just cancel it. :) Give me a little time to recover and we'll see.

The Grocery Store and Broken Bathrooms

If you want to make sure you remember everything important at the grocery store, be sure to bring your two year old daughter. I brought mine with me to Walmart. Having forgot my list at home on the counter, I struggled to remember everything I wanted to purchase. I said out loud, mostly to myself, "I think I'm forgetting something. I just can't remember." To which Maggie replies, "Hmmmmm, I know, CHOCOLATE!" Perhaps she was right.

Also, be sure to involve your daughter in the trashing of the bathroom. Tonight, when I pulled the shower curtain open, the towel bar somehow managed to fall off the wall. Maggie watched in horror as the hanging radio crashed to the floor. To which she replied, "MOM! Piece a crap! Look what you did. You break the radio. Why you do dat? This is TERRIBLE." She's right. It looks terrible, and it sounded even worse when it happened.

I'm not sure what I would do without Maggie's guidance. Perhaps she should take over the job of being mom.

Life with a 2 year old

So the past few weeks have been interesting and challenging with a 2 year old and a baby. Sickness seems unavoidable, and keeps creeping up on us. But we are battling it like the best of them! Maggie is forever saying funny things.
Since she got this cold, her nose was running and she told me, "Mommy my nose is crying."

Also, when we were at Duncan Donuts, Maggie told me she liked extra cream and extra sugar in her coffee. Its yummy good. Apparently I order to much Dunkin Donuts coffee, because she knows how I like it.

Kids are great! My daughter is more fun every day, and my boy just amazes me. I'm adding new pics for your enjoyment!


This is a picture of Maggie shaving with her yogurt.



Maggie looking angelic after a bath.



Maggie changing the sheets and playing with Daddy!


My boy getting so big and handsome.


Look at that smile!

Pics

I haven't posted pictures in awhile and Miles really is getting big. He's 2 and a half months old already. Its really unbelievalbe. Here are some pictures of the cute little guy. And Maggie is pretty silly so I'll share some pics of her too.

Sickness

So our house has been full of germs and sickness the past couple weeks. It all started with Jeremy getting a really bad cold. Somehow it managed to be 2 weeks after he was sick and almost better that Maggie and I got sick at the same time. She ended up spiking a fever that lasted 4 days, and we both got the stuffy nose, runny nose, sneezing, wicked cough thing. Then we are both getting better finally after about 2 weeks, and we think Miles is in the clear right? Wrong. He starts getting a stuffy nose, so I figure if thats all it is, then he just won't get it as bad as us. Then he starts coughing, and tonight he gets the fever of 101. I feel like we just can't all seem to shake this. I'm so worn out by everyone being sick around me. Its starting to depress me and I am so sad to see little Miles so sick. So pray for us if you think of it.

GOT IT!

Mwa ha ha! I got it! It can only hide for so long. Enjoy the smiles.

I'm a Survivor

So we all survived mommy's return to work. It was tough on everyone the first day, but seemed to go smoother day two. Then I am off the rest of the week. All in all this return to work went much better than after Maggie, but of course I was working 12 hour days before and after Maggie was born. The one thing that was a bigger struggle is that I didn't return to work with Maggie until she was 3 months old. Miles was only 7 weeks, and still at that age where sometimes the only thing to stop the crankiness is just being with mom. But Jeremy did well with both of them, and Sam didn't even cry. Maggie was happy to see me go back to work, and she didn't seem to care at all. I hope things continue to go smoothly with this transition. Extra prayers are welcome.

Big Sister Skills

First of all, as you most of you know, yesterday was the coldest day since 1996. Jeremy didn't have to go to work because of the cold, so we got to bunker down in the house and eat leftover soup. About mid-day, Jeremy decided to take a nap, and Maggie and Miles were already sleeping, so I thought I would read a bit. After reading a bit, the house started to feel chillier and chillier. I check the thermostat and its blank. Apparently the battery died in the digital thermostat, but I didn't know what it was. So I had to wake Jeremy up to figure it out. I felt so bad. He never takes naps. Once the battery was replaced, the temp was about 63 in the house. Felt way colder than that! Luckily it was only a battery. I can't imagine what furnace guys were doing yesterday. I'm sure we would not have been able to get someone over here to fix it, had it actually been a broken furnace!

Now for Maggie:

What's This

Maggie came up to me the other morning with something in her hands that I could not see. She kept saying to me, "Mommy, what's this?" I told her I didn't know, because I couldn't see it. She persisted, "Mommy, what's this? What's this?" Finally I told her to give it to me so I could see what it is. She places said object in my hand, and to my disgust it is a fresh booger. Not that a stale one would have been any better. So I told her it was a booger, and she says, "Oh, a booger. Boogers live in my nose."

A Mess

Today Jeremy had a hard time getting the car started with all the cold. So, he came in and out of the house several times this morning. He ended up having to jump the car using the Ford, and eventually got it started. In his wake he left a trail of salty water marks on the front foyer floor and the kitchen floor. When Maggie woke this morning and came downstairs, she was quite perturbed by the mess. I quote, "DADDY, what did you DO?! No no no! Clean up this mess!" At which point she grabs a dry dish towel and tries to clean up the floor. She continues to talk to herself, "Naughty daddy. What did daddy do?! No no no daddy!"

Scary Clowns

At one point, we had the dvd The Dark Knight sitting on near the TV. Maggie, being the curious child she is, picks it up. She looks at the back, where one of the Joker's henchmen has a picture on it. She asks, "What's this?" So, Jeremy tells her, "Its a scary clown." For at least a week she walked around with that DVD case saying, "Look, a scary clown." She would wake up in the morning and from naps asking to see the scary clown. So Jeremy decides to look up scary clown masks on the internet to show her more pictures. She loved it! She would look at the thumbnails and say, "Hmmmmm, how bout that one? No, too scary? How bout that one? No, too gross. This one? Perfect." Eventually we tired of having to get the computer out to show her scary clowns, so we told her that the scary clowns are gone, they went to Texas. Still, to this day, she asks once in a awhile, "Scary clowns back in Texas?"

No for pictures!

We've been super busy here at the Keen household. I wanted to share some pics of the kiddos as well as some new Maggie stories. Miles is still pretty boring, but cute as a button.

Smiles

Miles smiled for the first time for real yesterday. Of course I can't get him to replicate it, but my next goal is to catch one in a picture. I was talking to him and he was cooing back at me, and he just grinned. It was awesome. It couldn't come at a better time since I am exhausted from getting up with him ever few hours at night. I guess thats why God times it when he does. As soon as I catch one in a picture, I will share it.

So this year has been eventful for the Illinois Keen clan. I suppose as bloggers must, I will review the year and reflect on the journey of our family.

Jeremy- This past year Jeremy has had some great successes both professionally and musically. At work, they re-evaluated his position and deemed that it was worth more money than he was making. Not a bad thing for us at all. His store relocated to a bigger building, and his boss continues to support his creative ideas for the future of the Elgin Habitat ReStore.This year Jeremy connected with alot of new musicians and played quite a few shows all over the Chicagoland area.

Sam- I have continued to work part-time for the YMCA, well if you can consider 36 hours a week part time. This position remains a challenge for me, as it is difficult to recruit so many staff and keep them through the school year. It pushes me to new creative lengths for ideas of how to gain staff.

Maggie - She turned 2 this year, and has not stopped talking since she figured out how. She is very creative and never ceases to make us laugh. We laugh even as she is getting in trouble. Towards the end of the year she took to singing with frequency, and we encourage her alot in that area. We are hoping that she is a future musician for the "family band."

Miles - Miles was born. He eats, sleeps, poops and pees. I'm sure the next year will bring much more interesting updates for him.

As a family we have continued to get more involved with our church. We joined a new small group this year, which has been a great encouragement for us. Jeremy even accepted a volunteer position with the worship team, and now organizes and recruits musicians for the worship team. We have added to our family with little Miles Jay, and while we are challenged daily by the complications of another child in our family, we couldn't be more thankful. Its been a pretty good year, but I'm hoping 2009 will be even better.